


Maz’s Magic

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [23]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Armitage Hux is a Jerk, M/M, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-05 10:41:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16366316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween day 23: WitchesKylo Ren is offered a job on a photoshoot in Glastonbury. He invites Hux to accompany him and while Ben is busy, Hux spends the afternoon sightseeing and shopping. Unfortunately Hux chooses to voice his opinions on modern witchcraft in the wrong magic shop.





	Maz’s Magic

The sun was kissing the horizon ahead of them as Hux pulled his car into a space in front of their hotel. Ben yawned and stretched as best he could in the passenger seat.  
“Thanks for driving us, honeybee,” Ben said.  
“You only asked me to come with you so that you could pack all your gear into my comfortable car and then have it driven for you while you snored,” groused Hux.  
Ben smiled and squeezed Hux’s thigh. “I promise I will make it up to you. Tonight.” Ben saw the beginning of a smile twitch Hux’s lips. “Twice.”  
“Well then, let’s check in.” Hux got out of the car and grabbed his overnight bag from the back.

Next morning, “Kylo” set off early to find the location of the photoshoot he was working on and Hux had a leisurely lie in and used the hotel gym simply because it was there. Ben had the car so Hux called a taxi to take him the short drive to the town centre. When the car stopped, Hux asked, “is this it?” and the driver laughed.  
“This is the centre of Glastonbury, my lovely. You’ll find an extensive range of cafés and bookshops, as well as a good number of suppliers for the modern witch. You want to book me for the return journey?”  
“Uh, no thank you.”  
Hux paid the driver and got out.

The street Hux got out on was neither wide nor narrow, and it was crammed with bright shops advertising crystals, magic supplies, spells, tarot readings, cakes and coffee. He chose a bookstore that had a café and drank his flat white whilst the resident cat blinked lazily at him. After that he explored a selection of stores looking for a trinket to buy for Ben, but nothing seemed quite right. Just as he was on the point of giving up, another shopfront caught his attention. He laughed at the name, _”Maz’s Magic. Get What You Deserve”_ and went inside.

A bell tinkled as the door clicked behind him and a voice croaked a welcome from behind the counter. Hux looked over. An unbelievably elderly woman smiled at him from behind enormous glasses. “Look around,” she said. ”Ask me or my assistant, Bazine about anything you like the look of.” Hux noticed a very elegant woman sitting nearby, regarding him with a sneer. Maz waved at him. “We have many precious and powerful artefacts so don’t touch if you don’t want to get hurt.”  
Hux frowned. “Is that a threat?”  
The woman laughed. “Oh the arrogance of youth! No, my dear. It is a warning.”  
Hux wandered around the store while Maz and Bazine talked in low voices. There seemed to be no logical order to the displays and the haphazard arrangements of objects on dusty shelves made him a little anxious. After a while, the woman approached him and he was surprised to realise that she had not been sitting on a chair behind the counter, she really was only two-thirds his height.  
“Hmm. You’re a tricky one,” she said. “I can usually tell what people want. What do you want? I have no idea.”  
“I want a gift for my partner,” Hux said. “He’s a photographer.”  
“Hmm. Someone who captures instants in time for a living. Perhaps a spell to make him plan for the future or learn from the past instead of dwelling on the fleeting seconds we call the present?”  
Hux shook his head. “No. No fake magic.”

The woman took a breath in and a step back. “Magic? Yes. Fake? No. Nothing you see in Maz’s Magic is fake.” She waved an arm, indicating the entire emporium. “All of it is magic. All of it is real.”  
“Oh come on,” said Hux. “That might work on gullible new-age tourists but I’m a well-educated businessman.”  
“Not so well educated in manners, are you my boy?”  
Hux went pink and spluttered. “How dare you speak to me like that! Well then. You have lost a sale today. It’s a wonder you’re still in business. Goodbye.”  
Maz grinned and leaned forward. She uttered a quiet incantation then said, “Good luck.”

Hux marched to the door intending to leave, but an object he had not seen on the way in caught his eye: a partially melted, plastic and metal mask. He stared at it. It was exactly the sort of creepy thing Ben would like. He imagined Ben photographing it and then showing off his work, smiling and talking too fast for Hux to follow and not minding that Hux didn’t really understand. He reached out his hand and touched the misshapen dome and—

_I can feel there is good in you, Father! No!_

There was lightning and crackling and the stench of searing flesh. Hux thought his teeth would crack in his jaw from how tightly he bit down. He snatched his hand away, stumbled back and the mask fell onto him.

_No!_

The pain returned. Hux writhed on the floor and the mask rolled away from him. He pointed at it.  
“What the fuck was that!”  
Maz shrugged. “It was magic. But you believe all magic is fake.”  
“I touched it and I saw... I was... somewhere else. I was someone else. It was not an illusion. It’s not possible.”  
“Then it must not have happened,” Maz said. “Now pick it up and put it back on the shelf.”  
Hux shook his head and shuffled across the floor away from the mask. “No. I am not touching it again.”  
“But it calls to you. You should take it for your boyfriend.”  
“If I agree to say that this was magic, will you make it stop?”  
Maz laughed. “Oh my boy, now you know that magic is real you will start to see it everywhere. Go and meet him. He doesn’t want gifts. He wants to make a life with you but he hasn’t worked out yet that you want it too.”

Hux got up and staggered into the street. The light was fading already and he checked his phone. He’d been in Maz’s store for three hours and Ben had left him a voicemail. He listened and smiled as Ben told him which restaurant he’d booked for them. Hux shook out his shoulders and turned to take a last look at the shopfront. He frowned and looked up and down the street at the neighbouring shops. Maz’s Magic was not there.


End file.
